Category: public transport

The Integrated transport system is the integration of different modes of transport in order to increase the efficiency of these modes by complementing one another with the aim of increasing the economic and social benefits. It’s a better way of moving people, goods and services without relying on a single mode of transportation e.g. road transportation. These transport modes are expected to complement one another by functioning together as a single important transport system.
The Integrated transport system deals in best practice methodologies, managing physical and operating with the needed skills for better performance in which each mode is interconnected and the connection is highly unified including ticketing, scheduling, amongst others. However, the following are the benefits of the integrated transport system:
1. It reduces unhealthy competitions while encourages free and healthy competitions
2. It is a means of perfect transportation by using all modes of transportation harmoniously as a single system to provide transport services.
3. It enhance effective use of all transportation modes
4. It is cost efficient
5. The system is environmental friendly when you compare it with each mode operated independently.
6. It enhances capacity, reliability and safety when you compare it with operating each mode independently
7. It is aimed at satisfying customer’s i.e. (passengers) needs as efficiently as possible.
8. The system has the capacity to achieve greater productivity and economy
9. It creates no room for unnecessary gaps. Every mode is efficiently used.
10. It creates unity and cooperation among transport industries.

A passenger car is made to carry passengers who travel regularly from one place to another. The passenger train cars have been improved in terms of convenience, comfort and speed.Due to these qualities, people enjoy traveling a long distance with passenger train cars and this means of transport is also more desirable in heavily populated areas.

Moreover, the articulate passenger cars are gaining more popularity in Europe and in the US. This is because major cities in Western Europe are connected by high-speed rail services and such cities include London, Paris, Brussels,

Amsterdam, Geneva, Berlin, Rome, among others. In articulated passenger train cars, joint cars are attached to a truck for normal operations; this also creates more room for more passengers to be carried in a single journey.

However, as many people around the world are patronizing rail transport daily for short and long mobility, for example, Indian Railways carries 22.21 million passengers daily, similarly there is an increase in rail accidents. However, there are 3 factors that can make rail accidents extremely dangerous; they are:

The weight

The speed &

The length

The weight of a train

A passenger train is much lighter than freight or cargo train.In other words, the weight of a commuter or passenger train is less than the weight of a cargo train. When passengers in a commuter train are involved in a crash or collision with a cargo train, injuries resulting from the accident are reflected on the passengers and this force is affected by the physical weight of a cargo train. Therefore, if there is a train crash or collision between a commuter and freight train, probably due to poor communication, the cargo train has a lot more mass and momentum to win the fight. In other words, the cargo train has the capacity to cause more harm to passenger train if an accident or a collision occurs.

In a collision that involves 2 trains e.g. a cargo train and a commuter train, which differ in weight, the lighter train will be at a disadvantage. The heavier trains i.e. (cargo train) will have more force due to the weight to push the lighter one which is the passenger train backward during the impact, which often results to derailment of the passenger train.

The speed of a train

Speed has been identified as one of the potential factors for rail accidents; many people have lost their lives in rail accidents due to high speed of train drivers. Often times when over speed is the direct factor of a rail accident, the result is always horrifying.

The Length of a Train

length of train

The length of the train is another important factor we need to consider that can cause rail accidents but unfortunately, most people, including accident investigators, pay little or no attention to this undeniable factor. The longer the train, the higher the chances of involving in an accident than a shorter train. Often times, when rail accidents occur, the investigators have to examine the potential factors that may cause the wreck and the factors they usually look at are: the speed as at the time of the incident, track conditions, throttle and brake settings among others.They may even go a bit further to interview the engineer, the passengers, and so on, in order to determine the cause of the accident but it is interesting to note that most of these accident investigators hardly consider the effects of the train length on train accident rate.

They take the length of a train for granted. They do not know that the longer the length of a train, the greater the potential factors for an accident to occur in rail transport. They do not know that the longer the length of a train, the higher the risk the of a train involving in an accident.

The train length is considered to have an effect on rail accident rate; this is because the mo t the more cars in a train increase, the higher the probability that a car or track elements in or below a train may fail at any point in time during operation. With this knowledge, the causes of accident in this regard can be divided into 2 types which are: firstly, the accident that can result from the number of train-miles covered and secondly, the one that can occur due to the cars-miles covered. (CCP 1995, Arthur D, Little (ADL) 1996). However, the length of a train in this article means the total number of the cars in a train. It is not the linear measurement of the actual length of a train. It is the total number of cars that is attached to a single truck to move with.

A Worrisome Factor

A passenger train is specially made to carry people in their large number. The longer the train, the higher the number of passengers it will carry. Most rail accidents are avoidable accidents because they are caused by human errors; yet it is humans that suffer most in the accidents for many people suffer permanent injuries while others even lose their lives. This is worrisome. For instance, when there is a collision between two passenger trains, the object that suffers most is the occupants (the passengers), hence, the saying when two elephants fight, the grass will suffer.

India’s worst rail disaster

plunges into the Baghmati river. Hundreds more are never found, with an estimated death toll ranging from 500 to 800

The most painful thing is that most innocent people suffer when accidents happen.It is important to note that it is not only passengers that suffer when a rail accident happens, even the pedestrians, bystanders, motorists etc. also suffer in rail accidents. However, for better understanding on the most worrisome factors in rail accidents, below are the examples of rail accidents:

‘At least 23 people died and dozens were injured when 2 passenger trains collided head-on in southern Italy on Tuesday,’ source: New Europe al jazeera.

A total of 27, 581 Indians died in 2014 in railway related accidents…. By the National Crime Records Bureau.

On 26 Nov., 1998, in khanna, at least 212 killed as a train collided with a derailed train.

On Sept., 2002, in Rajdhani, the Rajdhani Express derailed on bridge, killng at least 130 people.

On May 28, 2010, in West Midnapore, West Bengal, : The Calcutta-Mumbai passenger train derailed, killing at least 100.

On August 2, 1999, at least 290 killed as two trains carrying a total of 2,500 people collided.

Nevertheless, ‘The worst accident was the November 20, 2016 derailment of the Indore-Patna Express near Kanpur which resulted in 150 deaths and over 150 injuries.’ Source: hindustantimes

Nevertheless, you will notice from the given examples of rail accidents that the most common fact is the death of people in the accidents. Many important personalities in their communities were sent to their early graves for choosing the rail transport for their journey. Painful enough, most of these are caused by human errors and in a simple language, humans make errors that send other humans to their early graves. This is the most worrisome truth in this article.

Plan as a word is a method formed by a person or group of people to achieve particular goals and objectives.

Therefore, planning means the act or process of carrying out plans to achieve goals and objectives in different areas e.g. in Business. (Industrial planning) in transport (Transport planning), etc

What is transport planning?

In 2006, the transport planning society defined the key purpose of transport planning as: – to plan, design, deliver, manage and review transport, balancing the needs of society, the economy and the environment.

From the above definition it means transport planner have a great work or duty to perform.

It is important to examine them one after the other for better understanding.

Transport planners have to plan:

To achieve a good success in any area of endeavour, there must be a good plan. If not success may be a mirage or day dream. Hence, the saying, any one that fails to plan, plan to fail. This explains why planning in transport is evitable. Transport manager must be a good transport planner.

Transport planners have to design:

To plan is not enough if the transport planner(s) has no will power to execute according to the transport plan. Transport planners must have ambitions to design transport policy or program for the benefit of everyone in the society. For instance, transport discrimination with emphasis on road transport against vulnerable groups in the society such as the poor, the elderly and the disabled must be eradicated by a good transport plan designed for such vulnerable groups in the society. More so, necessary transport project, systems and services must not be left out when making transport planning for the society.

Transport planners have to deliver:

Transport planners also have the responsibility to deliver good transport services to the society. When a transport plan is made to achieve a transport aim and objectives and when good transport design is made in terms of transport policies and programmers to address transport problems in the society, hence, all these activities or steps must produce a desired or expected result. Otherwise, transport planning will be meaningless.

Transport planners have to manage and review transport:

Before any organization can achieve its aim and objective, the available resources must be carefully and adequately managed. In the same vain, if the purpose of transport planning must be achieved available transport resources must be adequately managed by the transport planners.

In addition, the act of view or see again on how to improve the existing transport system and infrastructure cannot be overlooked as a vital responsibility of transport planners. Therefore, there is need to evaluate and re-examine transport regulatory policies and programmes for the benefit of transport users. More so, there is an urgent need to review transport system most especially in Africa to accommodate the vulnerable people such as old people, disable, and children.

Transport planners have to balance the needs of the society, the economic and the environment:

Transport planners also have a great responsibility to create transport regulatory policies, strategies and plans that contribute to meeting social, economic and environment needs. For instance, transport plan to support green environment is a vital plan and benefit of society at large.

Transport planners have to play a technical and coordinating role to the government:

Since politicians also have their own way of addressing issues or problems, hence transport planners are expected to provide better transport information to decision makers such that politicians can make a good decision that will produce a good transport result for the society at large.

Nevertheless, when there is any problem a society face, there must be a plan to address such a social problem. However, when you consider transport problems and issues that a particular society are facing and what goals and objectives can be used to address transport issues or problems then the need for transport planning becomes inevitable in this regards.

Spain has a very good public transport system in most of its major cities. Most cities have enough buses and rail transport that provide efficient transport service to the public. The public transport in Spain is more comfortable and convenient to board.

Rail transport operation in cities of Spain

The Spanish rail transport system is run by Government Company called Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Espanoles (RENFE). This organization provides service to major cities in Spain. Although it does not provide service to all small towns, however, it is supported by other railways operations like FFCC city lines Barcelona and private railways. However, RENFE uses the AVE trains for its operations, they are fast and efficient in fact, they are among the best train in Europe.

However, there are other many local trains that operate on short distance they are known as tranvia i.e. (tram). Also, suburban commuter trains i.e. (cercanias) they are second class service provider and they stop at all stations in Spain.

Transportation made by buses in cities of Spain.

The local buses in cities of Spain run around the clock, they operate from around 0600 until between 22:00 and midnight. However, midnight transport operation in Spain is more expensive. It is important to know that most local bus services in Spanish cities lack enough seats for passengers to sit hence, most passengers end up in standing for the rest of their journey. It is also, important to note that the buses operating within the urban cities are quite slow, however, to tackle this problem some major cities provide special lanes for buses in order, to enhance smooth and fast transportation. However, most towns in Spain have their bus terminal, nevertheless, whenever you are at a bus stop to board a bus, the bus may not necessarily stop for you unless you indicate your interest to board the bus or you wave to the driver to stop for you.

Transportation by taxi in Spanish cities

In Spain you are expected to use taxis that are allowed by the authority to operate within the cities, such taxis often display their special license. Since the taxis are monitored and governed by a strict legislation hence, they provide a very high standard service to the public. However, these public taxis often display a green light when they are free for any passenger to board. The taxis in cities of Spain are metered and they also have a set price for certain journey. However, tipping is their common practice in Spain.

Transportation by metro in Spanish cities

Metro transport lines are found in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. They provide the most fast transport services to get around these cities and during the rush hours, they are highly patronized. However, special tickets are made available for passengers to be used. Such tickets include, cheap day return, a metro card that allows the passengers unlimited use of metro lines for three (3) to five (5) days, and weekly and monthly tickets or passes are also available for passengers.